Eye on Earthtag:blog.lib.umn.edu,2009-11-19:/ione/eyeonearth//111862014-05-21T19:01:57ZOffering a window on the everyday activities of Institute on the Environment staff and fellows who are working to solve some of the the world’s biggest problems. From providing food to a growing human population to reducing loss of biodiversity and tackling emerging diseases, read what we're up to and join the conversation about how small steps lead to big solutions to Earth's most pressing environmental challenges.Movable Type Enterprise 4.31-enUnderstanding Urban Eutrophicationtag:blog.lib.umn.edu,2014:/ione/eyeonearth//11186.4231902014-05-21T18:10:47Z2014-05-21T19:01:57ZWhen you think about the primary sources of water pollution, you probably imagine a factory pipe or perhaps massive livestock farms. But would you believe that your quiet neighborhood could be degrading water quality locally and downstream?That was the topic...John Sisser

When you think about the primary sources of water pollution, you probably imagine a factory pipe or perhaps massive livestock farms. But would you believe that your quiet neighborhood could be degrading water quality locally and downstream?

That was the topic of the season finale of Institute on the Environment's Frontiers in the Environment lecture series on Wednesday, May 12, on the University of Minnesota's St. Paul campus. ]]>
A Watershed Approach to Understanding Urban Eutrophication," Sarah Hobbie, an IonE resident fellow and professor of ecology, evolution and behavior in the College of Biological Sciences, discussed how nutrients from lawns, pets and boulevard trees contribute to excessive algal growth in urban water bodies.

"We get a lot of benefits from the lakes that we have here in the Twin Cities: recreation, aesthetics, lakes support biodiversity, among other services," Hobbie said. "But our lakes are widely impaired by a process that we call eutrophication, which is overabundant algal growth that occurs because of excessive inputs of nutrients, particularly nitrogen and phosphorus."

So what are the sources of those nutrients in urban watersheds? According to Hobbie, biological fixation of nitrogen, imported nutrients from pet waste or fertilizer and atmospheric deposition can all contribute to nutrients in residential neighborhoods.

During rain or snowmelt, the nutrients on these landscapes runoff into local water bodies. This problem is exceptionally bad in urban areas, given how the landscapes were developed.

"In an urban watershed, we've constructed the landscape in order to move water very quickly from land to downstream because we don't want the landscape to flood," she said. "We have a lot of impervious surface, so the landscape doesn't drain very well. So we want to get that water off of our impervious surface to prevent flooding and move it downstream. We've created a very dense drainage network in our urban landscapes."

Managing nutrient runoff in urban areas is challenging, but strides are being made by placing a restriction on phosphorus fertilizers and implementing street sweeping programs to remove nutrients from the landscape before they runoff. Because different tree species are influenced uniquely by seasonal variations in climate finding an optimal time for street sweeping can be challenging.

"One of the things that we've been doing is trying to gather more data on how trees vary in their phenology of both the flower drop in the spring, and seed drop and also in litterfall," Hobbie said. "So we've established a citizen science monitoring network and this was actually done with an IonE mini grant.

"So this is linked into the National Phenology Network if you're familiar with that but we call it the Minnesota Phenology Network and we have about 30 citizen scientists who monitor phenology of street trees and submit their data to this public database through their smartphones or their computers."

The Minnesota Phenology Network isn't the only way citizens can have an impact. The nutrient sources from urban landscapes are typically the result of individual decisions. While this makes the sources difficult to control, it also provides an opportunity for homeowners to improve water quality with their everyday actions.

"If we think of where nutrients are coming from that ultimately come into this landscape, they're coming from fertilizer, they're coming from pets, they're coming from atmospheric deposition which is arising from combustion of fossil fuels," she said. "And if you think about all of these sources of nutrients, they are controlled by individual household decisions. So if we want to try to manage nutrient inputs to these watersheds, we need to think about how we can influence household decisions."

Watch Hobbie's full presentation online.John Sisser is a communications assistant with the Institute on the Environment.

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Biofuels and the Fiction of the Average Farmtag:blog.lib.umn.edu,2014:/ione/eyeonearth//11186.4229242014-05-16T15:22:18Z2014-05-19T17:27:50ZIonE Guest Posthttp://environment.umn.edu/

BY JOHN SHEEHAN

Several years ago, Gevo Inc., which operates a biorefinery in Luverne, Minn., approached the University of Minnesota with what seems like an obvious question: How sustainable is the corn it uses in its southwestern facility?

I say "obvious" because almost everyone (experts and nonexperts alike) thinks they already know the answer. It seems like we take it for granted that fuels and chemicals made from corn are a "bad idea" because of corn's apparently large carbon footprint, which Argonne National Lab estimates to be 371 grams CO2 per kilogram of corn harvested on average in the U.S.

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To answer the question, researchers at the U's Institute on the Environment, supported by an Initiative for Renewable Energy and the Environment grant, asked farmers around the Gevo facility about everything they do up to and including delivery of their grain to the plant gate. We then used this information to calculate the carbon footprint of a kilogram of corn coming from their farms.

The average corn farmer, it turns out, is no more real than the average family of 2.5 children. Thirty or so farmers gave us enough detail to assess their carbon footprints. It turns out they are from Lake Wobegon - all "above average" - with carbon footprints far smaller than the U.S. average.

More interesting is how different these individual farms are from each other. The best performing farmers (that is, the lowest carbon footprint farms) deliver corn with less than one-fifth the carbon footprint that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and others typically assume for average U.S. corn. The most carbon-intensive farms come in somewhere close to the U.S. average. Indeed, the best farm we found was achieving a net sequestration of carbon in its fields.

Why are they so different? An analysis of our data tells us that farmers at the low end of the scale are doing a few very important things:

1.They have integrated animals and animal manure into their production systems, allowing them to avoid fossil energy-intensive fertilizers.

2.They are applying conservation tillage practices that help to build up organic carbon in the soil -- leading to healthier soils and fields that are carbon sinks instead of carbon sources.

3.Many of the farmers who are not using animal manure to reduce their fertilizer use are being much more careful about how much fertilizer they apply. In fact, the farmers with large carbon footprints are using up to twice as much fertilizer as they need to be.

So, what can we learn from all this? For one thing, averages can be misleading -- and discouraging. Regulators should be finding ways to encourage farmers to perform like the best farmers, rather than discouraging the best farmers by lumping them all together as average farmers. In a follow-up study released by Colorado State University, researchers have taken a deeper dive into understanding just how much more this cohort of farmers could reduce their carbon footprint by combining the strategies identified in the IonE study.

In the meantime, there are many opportunities for low-carbon biofuels that don't require massive investments in new technology. We may need those new technologies in the long run, but we can start on the path toward low carbon fuels by simply learning from the best of the best.

John Sheehan was Biofuels Program coordinator at the Institute on the Environment at the time of the study. Currently he is the systems analyst in the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences at Colorado State University.

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Accolades for Acaratag:blog.lib.umn.edu,2014:/ione/eyeonearth//11186.4228892014-05-14T16:59:48Z2014-05-16T02:17:17ZWith its innovative work to encourage impact entrepreneurship around the world, we've always had a hunch the Acara program is something special. That hunch got some solid affirmation recently when Acara won the C. Eugene Allen Award for Innovative International...Monique Dubos

With its innovative work to encourage impact entrepreneurship around the world, we've always had a hunch the Acara program is something special. That hunch got some solid affirmation recently when Acara won the C. Eugene Allen Award for Innovative International Initiatives (III Award) from the Global Programs and Strategy Alliance. The award recognizes faculty and staff who internationalize their work or the work of their department. The recipients receive an award trophy and a $2,500 professional development or program assistance stipend.

"The team that launched the idea of Acara at the University has energized students and faculty around creative solutions to basic problems. Students step out of the classroom into the laboratory that is society, and learn how to put theory into action. Students work across culture and across disciplines in responding to social concerns that affect people's most basic needs. That work combines creativity with practicality and theory with practice, providing students with the confidence that they can contribute to positive change," says Meredith McQuaid, associate vice president and dean of international programs.

incubate the best ideas and the best students beyond the classroom in the real world

foster an ecosystem of corporate and foundation partners, impact investors, venture incubators and professional mentors to support student venture to become real and viable businesses.

Acara's primary programs include the Acara Challenge, a yearly impact venture plan competition for University of Minnesota student social entrepreneurs focused on addressing grand challenges in the U.S. and globally, as well as international venture design workshops, Minnesota venture design workshops, monthly Acara impact venture reviews, and ongoing incubation of University social entrepreneurs. While undergraduate and graduate students at the University are the core participants in Acara's programs, the programs also work with students from universities in India and East Africa.

The III Award is named for C. Eugene Allen, former University of Minnesota Provost for Professional Studies, dean of agriculture, and associate vice president for the Office of International Programs (predecessor to the GPS Alliance).

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Adventures on the Frontiers of Carbon Reductiontag:blog.lib.umn.edu,2014:/ione/eyeonearth//11186.4226102014-05-13T20:39:01Z2014-05-13T16:32:19ZEnvironmentalists in the United States have long pushed for reductions in carbon emissions. Now, it seems the era of carbon regulation may be upon us. But implementing these complex regulations is complicated and takes place at both the federal and...John SisserEnvironmentalists in the United States have long pushed for reductions in carbon emissions. Now, it seems the era of carbon regulation may be upon us.

But implementing these complex regulations is complicated and takes place at both the federal and state levels. This was the topic of Fresh Energy science policy director J. Drake Hamilton's Frontiers in the Environment lecture last Wednesday, April 30 on the University of Minnesota's St. Paul campus. ]]>
Adventures on the Frontiers of Carbon Reduction," Hamilton emphasized the need to educate the public on new and existing policies impacting carbon emissions for broader public involvement.

"As we go into this new world and some of the adventures of this new world of carbon regulation that has not happened before, everyone will need more of a working knowledge about what has already happened and what is possible, but we'll need more people talking about these issues to policymakers, to opinion-leaders, and to their colleagues," she said. "We will need much more engagement in order to be successful."

A proposed rule expected to be issued by the United States Environmental Protection Agency next month is bringing the issue of carbon regulation to the forefront. The regulation will impact existing power plants and is expected to be finalized after a year-long public comment period. By June 2016, states will need to develop implementation plans to allow them to meet the new standard.

Carbon reductions at the state level is where Minnesota's policies surrounding energy have laid a solid foundation, according to Hamilton.

"We have a very strong base in Minnesota and in many other states in that in determining our mix of electricity we use least cost principles, and there have been very recent examples in Minnesota of how--based on just economics--wind power and solar energy have come out ahead of all other competitors," she said. "In addition, Minnesota utilities or regulators or a combination thereof have found ways that we can retire and replace, so far, 10 coal burning units in Minnesota and those retirements and replacements are happening in every region of the state of Minnesota. So some of it is already happening because of good energy policy that is driving down carbon emissions and we need to move faster and further there."

In order to make progress toward carbon reduction goals, Hamilton believes a collaborative approach bringing together multiple interests is essential.

"At Fresh Energy and with many of the partners we work with, we don't think about people as opponents on an issue," Hamilton said. "We think there is a great deal in the way of shared core values and shared world views. There are certainly divergences in world views, but I think that's what makes life interesting and I think that means that we may need more people coming to the table as stakeholders to talk about how Minnesota is going to move forward on implementing carbon reductions because we will get a better outcome."

To say that reducing carbon emissions is going to be a challenge is an understatement, but Minnesota is well-situated to be a leader in the field. Most importantly, it's imperative not to become overwhelmed by the first-ever limits on carbon emissions from power plants. Inaction simply is not an option, according to Hamilton.

"When you look around at your future kids and grandkids and you think about what we knew about climate change, its impacts, what the world scientists were saying we needed to do right away and those future kids and grandkids ask you what you did back in 2014, we need to tell them we did everything we could to fight climate change," she said. "And Fresh Energy goes on from there. We need to tell them we did everything we could to fight climate change, and it worked."

John Sisser is a communications assistant with the Institute on the Environment.]]>
Leaders Are Made, Not Borntag:blog.lib.umn.edu,2014:/ione/eyeonearth//11186.4224952014-05-09T19:03:42Z2014-05-14T18:06:02Z "Leaders aren't born, they are made," said revered football coach Vince Lombardi. That's the guiding principle behind the Boreas Leadership Program, a strategic initiative of the University of Minnesota Institute on the Environment. Boreas offers leadership development opportunities to...Monique Dubos

"Leaders aren't born, they are made," said revered football coach Vince Lombardi. That's the guiding principle behind the Boreas Leadership Program, a strategic initiative of the University of Minnesota Institute on the Environment. Boreas offers leadership development opportunities to graduate, professional and postdoctoral students from all University colleges.

Boreas seeks to develop the next generation of social and environmental leaders -- those who will tackle the tough challenges facing the world today -- through skills workshops, networking and mentoring events (the weekly Boreas Booyah!), and participation on a student advisory board.

"Boreas programming complements a traditional graduate education and helps develop the kinds of leaders we need in the transition to a more sustainable world. Boreas students move beyond the University as stronger communicators and better-networked leaders ready to jump into making an impact," says Boreas program director Kate Knuth. "It's exciting to see what they're up to and where they're going."

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We recently caught up with a couple of busy Boreas alums to see how they are putting their experiences into practice. John Bussey graduated from the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences in spring 2013; Julia Eagles is completing her master's degree at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs.

John Bussey, Program Director, YMCA Camp St. Croix

What did you do at the U and what are you doing now?

I studied conflict around environmental choices, researched the relationship between the U.S. Forest Service and tribal groups, and assisted in teaching a few environment-related classes. I loved it.

Service on the student advisory team of IonE's Boreas Leadership Program was a breath of fresh air through much of my second year. It gave me an outlet for my creative energies and kept the academic and nonacademic firmly joined in my mind. Really, it's a wonderful program.

I'm now a program director for YMCA Camp St. Croix, where I manage a staff of 15 program coordinators and 60 counselors who work their butts off in the summer to provide safe, fun, and enriching weeklong programs for kids and teens in the woods south of Hudson. I am having so much fun.

How did Boreas prepare you to make the transition to your current leadership role?

A year ago, in the spring of 2013, I and a few others on the Boreas student advisory team helped put together a nonprofit board service workshop. It went wonderfully; we brought in three leaders from the nonprofit community to share their perspectives with a dozen or two Boreas students. It was just weeks after that event that I was asked to join the community board of YMCA Camp Widjiwagan, the camp where I had guided wilderness trips for many years. While I can't say for certain that planning the workshop got me the spot on Widjiwagan's board, service there certainly set me apart as I applied for my current role.

Was there a Boreas experience that gave you an "aha" moment?

I remember Mark Tercek, the leader of The Nature Conservancy, asking us why there were no MBAs at a Boreas networking event -- he jokingly asked if they all got lost on the way over. Of course the point was that individuals with business skills are increasingly important in the efforts to solve complex environmental problems. That moment plays in my head still and was the first of several experiences that has me on the brink of pursuing business school.

I also feel that I learned a ton from getting to know Kate Knuth. She so genuinely cares about people and about the work that she is doing. I can't imagine a better mentor for sustainability-minded graduate students trying to figure out how to make an impact in the world.

Can you give an example of how you use what you learned at Boreas in your current work?

Incredibly, just last week I spent 15 minutes drawing out a systems map related to staffing at St. Croix, a skill that I learned through a Boreas workshop, "Systems Thinking & Tools." I can't say I remembered all the correct labels and I probably should have used more double arrows, but the process certainly helped me clarify my thoughts.

Julia Eagles, Research Assistant, City of Minneapolis

What are you doing inside and outside of academia?

I'm a master of public policy student at the Humphrey School, with a minor in science, technology and environmental policy, and will be finishing up my program in the next couple of weeks (graduate is May 18!). I also work for the City of Minneapolis in the Sustainability Office and as a smart grid policy research assistant with professor Elizabeth Wilson.

I got involved with the Boreas Environmental Leadership program at Institute on the Environment in my first semester as an opportunity to connect with students from other departments at the University, develop tangible skills for work in the environmental field, get exposure to leadership and professional development opportunities, enjoy networking opportunities with environmental professionals working in the field, and have an excuse to visit the pastoral St. Paul campus (plus the delicious food and drink at the networking events doesn't hurt!).

How did Boreas prepare you to make the transition to your current leadership role?

The Boreas program has given me some excellent skills for my current positions -- both as a research assistant and in the City of Minneapolis Sustainability Office. The key theme throughout the Boreas workshops I participated in was communications -- how to effectively communicate the message of your research or your work to a general audience. It started with [IonE Communications Director] Todd Reubold's "Building Better Presentations" workshop, which changed the whole way I think about PowerPoint, and continued with "Interacting With the Media" and "Telling Your Story." Being able to put together an effective (and visual -- no bullet points!) PowerPoint, press release, poster presentation or policy brief has served me again and again in my work. Then being able to talk about it in a way that's compelling and accessible is the icing on the cake.

Which Boreas event gave you the "aha" moment?

As I said, "Building Better Presentations" was a game-changer for me. It turned me into a total PowerPoint snob, but has also made me the person my colleagues and classmates turn to for presentation design advice. Whenever I start a presentation now, my process is to go analog -- to sketch out my main points and supporting visuals, and then go to the computer to lay it out. It's changed the whole way I think about presentations and comes in handy all the time in my work.

Another slightly less exciting skill I gained was the nuts and bolts of meeting planning in the "Meetings that Matter" workshop. We spend so much time in meetings for work and school, and yet spend very little time preparing for those meetings to make them effective. Taking the time to sketch out an agenda, outcomes and goals ahead of time has made me much more effective in the time I spend in meetings.

Can you give an example of how you use what you learned at Boreas in your current work?

Last spring I was working with the Environmental Quality Board at the State of Minnesota, a board consisting of five citizens and the heads of nine state agencies that shape shared priorities for Minnesota's environment and development. I was involved in helping to plan and create the program for the Minnesota Environmental Congress in March of 2013. One of my tasks was designing the presentation summarizing the outreach and public participation leading up to the congress, which was presented by Kate Knuth, who was the newest Environmental Quality Board citizen member at the time. That process gave me a chance to put my presentation skills to work, to tell the story of what citizens around Minnesota were saying about environmental issues, in a way that combined quantitative and qualitative data and was visually compelling. Kate and I got to work together on the design and it came together really nicely (and she of course presented it like a rock star!), thanks in large part to the skills I learned in Boreas.

My co-workers at the city regularly ask me to put together presentations for them, which gives me a chance to learn a variety of subject matter topics and practice visualizing them effectively. Most recently I put together a presentation for the Community Environmental Advisory Commission and the Minneapolis City Council Health, Environment and Community Engagement Committee on setting a long-term carbon reduction goal for Minneapolis. It resulted in the council setting the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050.

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Paddle Forward: Mississippi River tag:blog.lib.umn.edu,2014:/ione/eyeonearth//11186.4225002014-05-07T19:27:00Z2014-05-08T22:39:42ZBY ELIZABETH JUSTLast fall, 10 other people and I paddled more than 2,000 miles in canoes. Our trip was called Paddle Forward, and we were on a mission to paddle the length of the Mississippi River. I've been paddling for...IonE Guest Posthttp://environment.umn.edu/

BY ELIZABETH JUST

Last fall, 10 other people and I paddled more than 2,000 miles in canoes. Our trip was called Paddle Forward, and we were on a mission to paddle the length of the Mississippi River. I've been paddling for years but mostly in wilderness areas such as the Boundary Waters. While I love these places and enjoy the quiet time alone in nature, recreating on local waterways brings a new appreciation to the place you live.

I spent the majority of college learning about environmental issues surrounding climate change, such as energy usage, water depletion, resource extraction and decreases in biodiversity. Alone, secluded in serene wilderness, you are less likely to think about difficult climate issues. However, while paddling a river that more than 50 cities depend on for daily water supply, you can't escape noticing the effects humans have on the fourth largest watershed in the world.

I became interested in sustainability issues after I took an off-campus course from HECUA that opened my eyes to the many environmental challenges we face today. After completing the HECUA course, I immediately signed up for the sustainability studies minor, housed at the University of Minnesota Institute on the Environment, to dive even deeper into the complexity of these issues. The minor furthered my knowledge on sustainability topics and provided the necessary tools to think critically about complex environmental systems. I also thrived in the experiential learning environment provided by the minor. I graduated in 2012 from the College of Food Agriculture and Natural Resource Sciences with a B.S. in environmental science and policy management.

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Paddle Forward was part of a pilot program for Wild River Academy, a Twin Cities nonprofit organization dedicated to watershed education. The eleven of us in five 15 to 16 foot canoes accomplished three goals. First, we completed the paddle from Bemidji, Minnesota (we couldn't start at the headwaters because of low water) to New Orleans, Louisiana. Second, while paddling we connected with organizations, individuals, and community members to learn about how they relate to the river and filmed these conversations to be used in a documentary about our experience. Finally, using an interactive website, we shared these stories with over 40 K-12 schools across the country, engaging them in adventure learning educational programming. The result was 70 days of intense interactions with everything Mississippi River.

Paddling the river, I experienced the diversity of industry, people, species and communities that rely on the watershed. I felt how warm the water feels after paddling past a nuclear plant, saw the runoff from pipes connecting drain tiles flowing into the river, and heard stories from people struggling to maintain livelihoods in dying river towns. I also saw pure kindness in strangers who displayed radical hospitality to 11 smelly river rats, encountered countless numbers of people working to ensure the river continues to be integrated in their community, and wildlife thriving due to conservation efforts. I ultimately came to appreciate the complexity of the great Mississippi watershed and the potential to share its importance with others.

It wasn't until we almost reached Baton Rouge that I truly understood the significance of the waterway I was paddling. We rounded a corner and there it was: the last bridge before the first major port on the Mississippi River. After we passed under the bridge, there were huge ocean-going ships docked and anchored on the river. They made barge tows look like bathtub toys and our fleet of small canoes look like ants on a sidewalk. I could see them being loaded and unloaded with oil, sand, natural gas, corn, soybeans and other commodities to be delivered around the world. I paddled passed a ship and read on the side that its home port was in China. Later, I passed another boat from Russia. Some ships' captains had southern accents so thick we couldn't really understand them. It was at this moment that I understood the power of the Mississippi River: It connects me, I mean us, everyone, to the rest of the world. It deserves for us to respect and appreciate its utility and beauty.

Currently, the Wild River Academy Team (myself included) manages and operates two programs. The first is a multiday summer educational program of canoe trips for junior high and high school students. The second is Paddle Forward. Each year we will pick a different river to explore in the Mississippi River watershed and complete a similar adventure learning program, connecting K-12 classrooms to our paddle. This fall we will start at the headwaters of the Chicago River and end our trip at the confluence of the Illinois and Mississippi rivers.

Every time I'm near the Mississippi River, my heart will skip a beat or a tear will roll down my face as I think about the trip. I sometimes look around at the people walking by and keep myself from yelling, "do you know how incredible this river is?" Instead, I just keep moving with a big bright smile on my face and reflect about my experience: the people I met, the conversations I had in the boats with the other paddlers, the students who followed our blog, and the restorative power of my paddle dipping into the water and pulling me gently forward down the Mississippi River.

Elizabeth Just is a teaching assistant for the sustainability studies minor capstone course at the University of Minnesota and the Paddle Forward program coordinator. She loves (almost) everything outdoors and will blow off all commitments to throw a Frisbee with friends.

Photos courtesy of Elizabeth Just. Top to bottom: starting off in Bemidji; paddling passed oceangoing vessels in Lousiana; the author before and after.

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Scandinavia: Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibilitytag:blog.lib.umn.edu,2014:/ione/eyeonearth//11186.4218382014-05-05T21:40:54Z2014-05-05T18:20:24ZWhen you think about Scandinavia, you probably think of its cold climate, warm people and high quality of life. But you may want to add "sustainable business model" to that list. Robert Strand, assistant professor of leadership and sustainability at...John SisserWhen you think about Scandinavia, you probably think of its cold climate, warm people and high quality of life. But you may want to add "sustainable business model" to that list.

Robert Strand, assistant professor of leadership and sustainability at the Copenhagen Business School and director of the Nordic Network for Sustainability, delivered his Frontiers in the Environment lecture about the Scandinavian approach to sustainability in the private sector on April 23 on the University of Minnesota's St. Paul campus. ]]>
In "Scandinavia: Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility," Strand discussed why large corporations are earning a bad reputation among members of the general public."You look at what we're teaching business school students and what business leaders are essentially going out and doing is saying, 'I'm going to go and get mine,'" Strand said. "The public picks up on this and sees corporations as going out and getting theirs and maybe not necessarily serving the common good and the well-being of society."

Strand attributes Scandinavian companies' sustainability leadership to a business model that emphasizes cooperation over competition. He even provides the example of Swedish fashion giant H&M, who refers to other clothing companies as "industry peers" rather than "competitors." The different terminology may seem subtle, but it makes a difference.

"This little shift in language is really indicative of a cooperative approach," he said, "and when we look at some of the greatest challenges that we have, often times we need so-called competitors to come together in pre-competitive spaces and say, 'What are we going to do about issues of climate change? What are we going to do about issues of child labor?'

"To the degree that companies and the businesspeople within them are using language like 'competitors,' it prevents the opportunity for engagement in areas that aren't competitive. I would argue that child labor and climate change aren't necessarily issues where we should be in competition but should be things that we come together and discuss."

Integrating this business model in the United States is challenging, but it's already beginning in some forward-thinking corporations. The key is to educate the business leaders of tomorrow on this cooperative business approach. To accomplish this, Strand leads a group of MBA students--including some enrolled at University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management--on a trip to Scandinavia.

"A lot of these students are part time MBAs who work with companies in the Twin Cities area like Target, Best Buy, General Mills and the like," Strand said. "It's very interesting to see the different perspective those students have when they come back because they see effective cooperation as being the underpinnings of business as opposed to this notion that business is fundamentally about war, about competition."

So what should other corporations take away from successful Scandinavian companies? According to Strand, the most important lesson is that when it comes to sustainability, teamwork is more effective than cutthroat competition.

"I would argue cooperation between companies and their stakeholders is increasingly necessary for the social and environmental sustainability of the world," he said. "Sustainability challenges that we all face are simply too big and too urgent for any single actor to effectively address alone.

"I would argue that we need to shift focus from achieving competitive advantage to recognizing that sustainability challenges actually represent opportunities for businesses also, so let's focus on how do companies try to encourage business students to say, 'How do you achieve a cooperative advantage?' This can help to change the conversation and the mindset. And finally, from my experiences I would see that inspiration for effective cooperation may be prosperously drawn from Scandinavia."

Watch Strand's full presentation online. John Sisser is a communications assistant with the Institute on the Environment.

Policy makers, land managers, and other stakeholders confront a dizzying array of environmental decisions. How do we best manage our natural resources? Where should we invest in conservation? Do we need stricter regulation of development or industry?

The Natural Capital Project, a core program of the Institute on the Environment, develops innovative tools and approaches to inform these important questions. Starting this year, the Minnesota team will add three full-time research positions -- a lead scientist, an ecologist and an economist. The growing NatCap presence at IonE will enhance the program's ability to meet increasing demand for data and tools that quantify the values of natural capital.

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What is Natural Capital?

How we manage our environment can directly or indirectly affect our stock of natural capital, the ecosystems (e.g., forests, grasslands, wetlands) and natural processes that provide valuable goods and services to people. We know these ecosystem services -- things like clean air and water or an aesthetically pleasing landscape -- are valuable. But how valuable? And how can we capture the values of nature in decisions about resource management, conservation and environmental regulations?

One thing is clear: the conventional market-based tools we use to value goods like corn, timber and houses don't translate well to public goods like clean air, bird-watching or beautiful views. Special methods are needed that look beyond markets to estimate the true value of these goods and services to society, and new types of institutions are required to manage natural capital resources.

A Global Partnership

The Natural Capital Project was formed, in part, to address these challenges. The founders of NatCap, including Regents Professor and IonE resident fellow Steve Polasky, recognized a growing demand for information on the value of nature's benefits to inform decisions. A partnership was formed among Stanford University, the University of Minnesota and two of the world's

largest conservation organizations, The Nature Conservancy and the World Wildlife Fund. The goal of the partnership was to bring together leading natural scientists and economists to develop user-friendly tools and approaches that could inform conservation and development decisions worldwide. Since its founding in 2006, NatCap has informed decisions in more than 20 global projects -- guiding investments in water security in Latin America, in coastal protection in the Gulf of Mexico, in food security and economic diversification in Belize, and in conservation and land-use planning in China.

The Natural Capital Project has always had strong ties to the University of Minnesota. Polasky continues to co-direct the project. U of M researchers designed and coded many of the early ecosystem service models that now make-up the software suite called InVEST (Integrated Valuation of Environmental Services and Tradeoffs).Minnesota data have been used in statewide ecosystem services assessments (see Polasky et al. 2011, and Kovacs et al. 2013), including a study estimating the value of the state's public lands.

This
diagram illustrates a typical workflow for a NatCap project using the
biophysical and economic models in InVEST.

The scope of the analysis is driven by the needs of stakeholders.Potential actions or decisions related to changes in natural capital or land use are translated into scenarios.The scenarios are run through multiple InVEST models to produce estimates of ecosystem services.Outputs of the models can be presented either in biophysical terms (tons of carbon, sediment, or nitrogen) or in economic terms (social costs of carbon, avoided treatment costs, or lost recreation value).Models are run with frequent interaction between scientists and stakeholders to co-produce knowledge and build capacity for future work within our partners and clients.The InVEST software suite currently includes 16 models that can be used to quantify the ecosystem services provided by both terrestrial and marine systems.

The Minnesota-based NatCap team continues to build on its strengths in model development and testing, including new approaches for the economic valuation of ecosystem services, and exciting technological advancements such as agent-based simulation models and spatial optimization tools. We are applying these innovations to estimate the social costs of nitrogen pollution in Minnesota, quantify the value of forests in Tanzania, design payment for ecosystem services programs in China, and better target agricultural expansion and conservation in Latin America.

The challenges associated with making informed environmental decisions remain. However, the Natural Capital Project, guided by U of M researchers, is making a serious impact in this space, both in elevating the recognition of the values of nature, and providing resources and tools to capture those values in decisions. The long-term mission of NatCap is to integrate the values of nature into ALL major decisions affecting the environment to improve both the state of biodiversity and human well-being.

For more information on the Natural Capital Project, visit our website or contact the IonE-based NatCap team:

Photos - Banner: Upper Yangtze River basin, China, by C.Tam; Woman at sunrise in the foothills of the Uluguru Mountains, Tanzania, by Taylor Ricketts

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50 Ways to Leave Your Foodtag:blog.lib.umn.edu,2014:/ione/eyeonearth//11186.4217382014-04-29T16:04:53Z2014-04-30T16:57:19Z Did you know that nearly half the American food supply gets neglected or outright rejected?Love Letter to Food, the latest video from MinuteEarth, laments the myriad abuses suffered by food because the convenience of wasting it outweighs the cost.The...Monique Dubos

Did you know that nearly half the American food supply gets neglected or outright rejected?

Love Letter to Food, the latest video from MinuteEarth, laments the myriad abuses suffered by food because the convenience of wasting it outweighs the cost.

The video is based on a new issue brief by Alex Reich, a graduate research assistant at Institute on the Environment and one of the creators of MinuteEarth, and IonE director Jonathan Foley. Among other things, the brief, Food Loss and Waste in the U.S.: The Science Behind the Supply Chain, reports that roughly 40 percent of the U.S. food supply is never eaten, with much of the waste occurring when edible food is discarded at home or in restaurants and cafeterias.

MinuteEarth offers mini science lessons via YouTube to engage the general public in science and environmental issues.

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Global Capital and Disease Hot Spotstag:blog.lib.umn.edu,2014:/ione/eyeonearth//11186.4216532014-04-28T18:29:06Z2014-04-28T19:41:13ZOur world is more connected than ever. It's now easy to live in the United States, buy airfare to Europe, send money to Africa and eat food from Asia. And while this global connectivity comes with a slew of benefits,...John SisserOur world is more connected than ever. It's now easy to live in the United States, buy airfare to Europe, send money to Africa and eat food from Asia. And while this global connectivity comes with a slew of benefits, it also opens the door to the spread of disease and potential for worldwide epidemics.

Robert Wallace, visiting scholar with the Institute for Global Studies, discussed the need to rethink how we define "disease hot spots" from locations where outbreaks originate to global centers of capital that drive disease-causing practices in his Frontiers in the Environment lecture on April 16. ]]>
Global Capital and Disease Hot Spots," Wallace presented the concept of One Health, a new public health approach focusing on the transmission of diseases from animals to humans.

"The standard One Health approach integrates investigations of wildlife, livestock, and human health in an ecological context," he said. "The approach convenes medical doctors, veterinarians, and wildlife biologists under the rubric [that] many species at a locale share infectious, chronic and environmental illnesses. The approach is not without precedence. Historically, multiple efforts have been made to connect human and animal health, but the renewed interest appears in part driven by practical matters as by theoretical developments."

A major driving force of disease is consolidation in the agricultural sector. Livestock farms have grown larger and more confined, making it easy for disease to spread rapidly.

"Profound shifts in stock breeding over the past three decades appear to have selected for new swine and avian influenza which now serve as a growing reservoir of potentially pandemic strains," Wallace said.

But pointing fingers at a single operation in one part of the world is not sufficient, according to Wallace. Instead, he argues that centers of global capital--places like New York, London, or Hong Kong--along with multinational corporations are funding the agribusiness practices that propagate disease in the first place.

Swine flu (H1N1), one of the most recent and highly-publicized disease outbreaks, provides evidence that large, globally-connected companies may be responsible.

"Every one of H1N1's genetic segments proved most closely related to influenza circulating among swine together originating on wholly different continents, and that's a geographic extent in commodity chain no smallholder operation can cover," he said. "Only internationally connected companies can pull that off."

So how can epidemiologists and public health officials use this information to get ahead of new disease outbreaks? The first step is to revisit the One Health approach by looking beyond simply where an outbreak originates and taking into account the factors causing it.

"In an era marking the end of capitalism's cheap ecology--the end of cheap energy, cheap labor, cheap raw materials and cheap food--a One Health able to actually control new epizootics from the ground up must account for the structural crises underlying the deforestation, development and dispossession driving new disease," Wallace said.

John Sisser is a communications assistant with the Institute on the Environment.

Photo by thornypup (Flickr Creative Commons)

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Unfair Air?tag:blog.lib.umn.edu,2014:/ione/eyeonearth//11186.4211392014-04-25T20:56:38Z2014-04-25T15:09:58ZPeople of color in the U.S. are exposed to 38 percent more nitrogen dioxide air pollution in the neighborhoods in which they live than are white people, according to new research from the University of Minnesota. The exposure they receive...Monique Dubos

People of color in the U.S. are exposed to 38 percent more nitrogen dioxide air pollution in the neighborhoods in which they live than are white people, according to new research from the University of Minnesota. The exposure they receive results in approximately 7,000 heart-related deaths per year.

U of M Instititute on the Environment resident fellows Julian Marshall and Dylan Millet and fellow researcher Lara Clark compared U.S. Census data and nitrogen dioxide levels in cities across the country and found that, irrespective of income, nonwhites had higher average exposure to nitrogen dioxide than whites. The findings received extensive coverage in the media this past week.

"The molecule [nitrogen dioxide] is not racist," said Marshall, responding to a tongue-in-cheek comment from Melissa Harris-Perry on her Sunday, April 20, MSNBC show. "But people do not live in places at random, as people have talked about on your show thus far. On average there are differences in exposure by race."

Marshall says that because this type of pollution comes from burning fuels, such as gas and diesel from motor vehicles and coal from electricity generation, the way to close the "pollution gap" would be to target emission reductions where people are the most exposed.

Julian Marshall is an associate professor in the College of Science and Engineering; Dylan Millet is associate professor in the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences; and Lara Clark is a CSE doctoral student.

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Boreas Leadership Alum Gets Earth Day Spotlighttag:blog.lib.umn.edu,2014:/ione/eyeonearth//11186.4213342014-04-23T15:38:46Z2014-04-23T19:40:08ZPlenty of folks were out enjoying the overdue warmth of the spring sunshine on Earth Day yesterday -- appropriate weather and occasion for a TV news spot highlighting an IonE-supported study at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum on how different landscapes...Monique DubosPlenty of folks were out enjoying the overdue warmth of the spring sunshine on Earth Day yesterday -- appropriate weather and occasion for a TV news spot highlighting an IonE-supported study at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum on how different landscapes affect local temperatures. The study is part of a project on the urban heat island effect, in which buildings and other urban infrastructure absorb and radiate the sun's heat, causing cities to be relatively warmer than their rural neighbors.

Brian Smoliak, a postdoctoral student in the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences, spoke confidently in front of the WCCO cameras as they tracked him installing temperature sensors at the arboretum. Smoliak credits an IonE Boreas Leadership Program workshop for his confidence in front of the camera.

"I attended the Boreas class called 'Interacting with the Media,' where we got to talk with media from print, TV and radio. It was helpful to get in front of people from media and practice talking about my work," he says. "They also suggested reaching out and pitching stories to the media, so that's what I did."

Smoliak contacted WCCO, suggesting that the project would make a good Earth Day story, and they agreed. "What you saw is what we got," says Smoliak about the news clip, which can viewed on the WCCO website.

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Common Groundtag:blog.lib.umn.edu,2014:/ione/eyeonearth//11186.4209522014-04-23T03:25:55Z2014-04-22T19:25:58ZMonique DubosThis article is part of a series of profiles of IonE resident fellows highlighting the value of their collaborations across the U of M, Minnesota and the world.

Conventional wisdom has it that farmers and conservationists don't see eye to eye. Conservationists want to see farmers plant diverse vegetation, in addition to crops like corn and soybeans, that produces ecosystem services; farmers' main priority is earning a living. Right?

"Farmers care just as much about the environment as anyone, but there are financial realities," says Nick Jordan, a resident fellow with the Institute on the Environment and an agroecology professor in the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences.

Tim Gieseke, a fourth-generation Minnesota farmer with a background in environmental science, explains that it's just not that easy to plant multiple crops on a landscape. "Adding crops means more work, more equipment, more time. Plus, lots of third- and fourth-generation farmers don't know how to grow crops other than the ones they've been growing," says Gieseke. "The level of expertise for the crop they know is high and the margin of error is tight. You only get one season, one chance."

How can these interests be reconciled? With the help of two cool technologies, Jordan and a cross-disciplinary team from the University of Minnesota are bringing farmers and conservationists together in an attempt to satisfy both economic and environmental bottom lines.

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Michigan State University that can turn biomass (plant material) into a marketable
commodity. "This could be a game-changer," he says.

"Traditionally, biomass has conservation value
but little economic value," Jordan says. The new technology treats
biomass with ammonia to make the sugars accessible, transforming it into
a high source of energy. "It has the potential to increase the value of
a cornstalk 80 percent," says Jordan.

Biomass, typically corn
stover in Minnesota, is considered an untapped resource, constituting up
to half of crop residue. "A very large amount of biomass can be produced in the upper midwest with little competition from food production and lots of environmental benefits,"
says Jordan. "The new technology makes pellets that look like alfalfa
pellets that you can feed to cows or sell to a biorefinery that's making
cellulosic ethanol. Or make biodegradable plastic bottles."

With a
market for biomass comes greater incentive to grow a variety of
crops, such as perennial grasses that improve water quality and
filtration while increasing biodiversity. And there is an added benefit
of making existing cropland more productive.

"It was a chicken and
egg problem. Farmers could grow biomass crops, but there was no market
to sell them to. Investors were reluctant to build the refinery because
there wasn't enough supply to make it cost-effective. This technology
brings both sides together," Jordan says.

With the
possibility of a market for biomass crops, Jordan and his team needed to get farmers and conservationists together. They convened
eight workshops in
the Seven Mile Creek Watershed in south-central Minnesota, a high- producing agricultural region
with poor water quality and good potential for improved biodiversity and
water quality services. The
first four workshops offered farmers, resource conservationists, state
agencies and business interests a forum for sharing concerns and
perspectives.

"These workshops were like a fast-forward for the
evolution of a conversation -- from the very simplistic agriculture-vs.-environment 'conflict' to a much more nuanced, complicated and
respectful understanding of costs, benefits, trade-offs and
perspectives surrounding the potential of biomass production to be a
driving force of positive outcomes for multiple interests," says Karen
Galles, coordinator for the Seven Mile Creek Watershed. "It started out
feeling like people were there to defend their own positions and silos
of interest. But as people began to get to know each other and work
together toward a shared vision for the watershed, those barriers began
to subside. A little bit of empathy goes a long way to creating the
mental space for meaningful collaboration on tough issues."

Enter cool technology number two. For the
next four workshops, participants got to roll up their sleeves and
"plant" crops on a parcel of land in various configurations without ever
getting their boots dirty. Using a touch screen technology developed by U-Spatial, a
transdisciplinary, collaborative U of M project, attendees were able to
choose and place crops on a 5,000-acre farm, get instant feedback on
the economic and environmental impact of their design, and compare alternatives side-by-side.

"The touch screens give a good visualization of the
landscape, the soil, slope, water quality and habitat protection laid
out with metrics to calculate the risks and benefits of different
planting patterns," says Gieseke. "The next step would be to get down to
the field scale, at the level where farmers make decisions."

The workshops provided Jordan and his team encouragment to move forward with the next phase of the project. "We wanted to see if we could get folks to go through the process, see if there could be a win-win." And the answer? "Yes!"

With
funding from an IonE Initiative for Renewable Energy and the
Environment grant, Jordan and his team will try to match farmers willing to produce biomass with buyers who can market it.

"As a land-grant University, the U of M needs to provide a
constructive presence, highlight opportunities and reduce friction. And
we need to apply research in the real world," says Jordan. "We have good
funding and good tools and good folks on the team - U-Spatial, landscape
architecture, Extension. And we have a business model we think will
work."

Check out this video, put together by U-Spatial's Molly McDonald, that shows the touch screens in action.

Images of the farm by Tim Gieseke; using touch screens by Carissa Schively Slotterback

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Yellowstone: More Valuable Than Goldtag:blog.lib.umn.edu,2014:/ione/eyeonearth//11186.4203282014-04-16T16:41:06Z2014-04-16T15:11:57ZMining near sensitive ecosystems is one of the hottest natural resource debates, pitting economic and environmental values against each other. As the controversy surrounding mining in Minnesota continues, opponents may want to take a few notes from one of the...John Sisser

Mining near sensitive ecosystems is one of the hottest natural resource debates, pitting economic and environmental values against each other. As the controversy surrounding mining in Minnesota continues, opponents may want to take a few notes from one of the nation's largest, successful anti-mining campaigns to date.

Mike Clark, former executive director of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, shared his experience fighting the New World mining project outside the nation's largest national park in the 1980s and 1990s in his Frontiers in the Environment lecture Wednesday, April 9 on the University of Minnesota's St. Paul campus. ]]>
"Yellowstone: More Valuable Than Gold," Clark discussed what makes the park and surrounding landscape so valuable and why that usually leads to conflict.

"Yellowstone is the most famous park in our part of the world, maybe in the world, and there are always conflicts because what we have done as a society is we have created the concept of protected lands around two different concepts--one being a national park and one being wilderness areas," he said. "And in those spaces we have basically said capitalism is not supreme, there are limits on what you can do to the land and how you maximize your profits in national parks and wilderness areas. We put limits on what humans can do. And as a species, we don't like that; we don't like limits. So part of what happens is that people fight to open up these lands for profit."

That's exactly what happened with the New World project when a Canadian company discovered five different gold ore bodies on a site just northeast of the Park in the 1980s. From that point on, the Coalition was prepared to fight.

"The fear from the beginning was that this mine would have a direct and indirect impact on Yellowstone Park," Clark said. "First in terms of water, but secondly in terms of huge industrial areas suddenly blossoming on the edge of Yellowstone Park. So the battle was joined.

"Local people came to groups like the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, the Wilderness Society, American Rivers, National Parks Conservation Association, and said, 'We need help.' They began to have a series of meetings and they quickly decided that a mine like this could not be mitigated. You had to stop it. There was no way to compromise because of this location."

The Coalition organized a grassroots effort, getting local residents to speak about the potential impact of the mine on the tourism economy. They also developed a legal strategy to fight the permitting process and a national media campaign. Some GYC staff members even used the media to corner then-President Bill Clinton on his vacation in the area.

All of these strategies improved the campaign, but Clark believes the key to success was pulling together multiple interests to reach as many people as possible.

"There are some clear lessons involved," he said. "One is you have to have a broad diverse coalition of people representing a wide range of interests. The battle engaged thousands of people around the country. At the peak of the battle it was the most well-known mining battle going on in the United States at the time."

A government buyout in 1996 ensured that the New World Mine site would not move forward, proof--for Clark--that while fighting a mining project is no small challenge, it can be done.

"I don't think it sets a lot of precedents, but it does show that if you can create the right kinds of combinations of coalitions and you build an image of what is right and what is wrong, the American people will respond," he said. "And if they respond, then our political leaders will respond.

"But in my experience in fighting a mine, you have to have the technical stuff in place--you have to be very good at that--you have to have a legal strategy in place, and you have to turn the battle. You have to flip it from a technical issue to a political issue. You have to convince your political leaders that this is not a good idea. And if you do, then they can intervene and if they want to help you they can find a way to stop it. The issue is leadership."

John Sisser is a communications assistant with the Institute on the Environment.

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IonE Director Leads off National Geographic Series With 5-Step Plan to Feed the Worldtag:blog.lib.umn.edu,2014:/ione/eyeonearth//11186.4205092014-04-15T18:21:43Z2014-04-16T15:59:36ZInstitute on the Environment director Jonathan Foley today served up the first article in an eight-month National Geographic series on feeding the world without destroying the planet."When we think about threats to the environment, we tend to picture cars and...Monique Dubos

Institute on the Environment director Jonathan Foley today served up the first article in an eight-month National Geographic series on feeding the world without destroying the planet.

"When we think about threats to the environment, we tend to picture cars and smokestacks, not dinner," writes Foley in the opening paragraph. "But the truth is, our need for food poses one of the biggest dangers to the planet."

"A Five-Step Plan to Feed the World" was published online today, with the print issue hitting newsstands next week. Drawing on research by IonE's Global Landscapes Initiative, Foley proposes five steps that could solve the world's food dilemma.

"This is a pivotal moment when we face unprecedented challenges to food security and the preservation of our global environment," Foley concludes in the piece. "The good news is that we already know what we have to do; we just need to figure out how to do it. Addressing our global food challenges demands that all of us become more thoughtful about the food we put on our plates. We need to make connections between our food and the farmers who grow it, and between our food and the land, watersheds, and climate that sustain us. As we steer our grocery carts down the aisles of our supermarkets, the choices we make will help decide the future."

After you've digested the "Five Step Plan," tune in to NPR's Marketplace this Wednesday, April 16, 6:30 p.m. and Science Friday on Friday, April 18, 1-3 p.m. CT to hear Foley discuss the future of food.

Foley, who was recently honored with the 2014 Heinz Award in the Environment, is a McKnight Presidential Chair of Global Environment and Sustainabililty and professor in the College of Biological Sciences.